In the following head restraint and head rest will be used interchangeably.
In order to reduce the impact of a rear-crash, more and more vehicles are provided with a crash-activated head rest, that reduces the space between the head of the seat occupant and the head rest in case of a rear crash to reduce or avoid injuries of the head, the neck and/or the back of the seat occupant. These crash activated head rests need an actuator that initiates and/or facilitates the movement of the head rest towards the head of the seat occupant. However, the actuators according to the state of the art are often complicated in design, reduce the level of comfort of the vehicle seat and/or are too slow.